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Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

So, before we even get into the yummy cookie recipe, lets address the fact that my food photography has gone to h-e-double-hockey-sticks.

Here’s the deal: JiT used to take all my photos but these days he just doesn’t have the time to do it (or finish the redesign for this site or pretty much do anything else blog-related). The man has a very busy job, a crazy puppy and a pregnant wife. I’m cutting him some slack. He’s promised to show me how to use the Nikon and give me a crash course in photography basics, but again, time has been a problem. Basically any spare time we have is spent working on the nursery, working on the house…working on something. You get the idea. So, for now, I’m left to take crappy pics with my iPhone camera. Its not pretty but it will have to do. Don’t plan to see me on Tastespotting anytime soon folks (though the existence of Tastestopping does take some of the sting out of rejection).

Anyway, enough of my moaning about crappy photography. This blog is going to heck in a handbasket and will probably only get worse once the baby arrives, but thats okay. I’m giving it what I can, so there.

Let’s console ourselves with cookies, shall we?

Oh and what cookies they are! Since around the start of my second trimester (just started my third this week, woot woot!), I’ve been fighting with a major craving for sweets…to the point that I almost require dessert each and every night. I try to keep things in check by making homemade sorbet or having a glass of chocolate milk, but sometimes I need something more. This week, I needed a cookie.

These are a little bit different from your average oatmeal cookie. The coconut adds some additional texture and chewiness and the spices are just divine. Plus the Kosher salt adds just a hint of saltiness here and there that’s quite yummy. You could probably add all sorts of things — nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate chunks — but I really enjoyed them straight up. I really like my cookies chewy so to get the texture just right I kept the baking time pretty short. The result is chewy and moist and spicy all at once. I made these on Saturday and the few that are left are still super soft and fresh tasting today.

They taste great paired with vanilla ice cream, tropical sorbet and, surprisingly, fresh mango! Mango and cookies has become my new favorite snack. I’m actually thinking about making a mango sorbet and perhaps creating some coconut oatmeal cookie/mango sorbet sandwiches….but that might require another batch of cookies. A slippery slope indeed.

One other note — something we learned in my baking class back in culinary school — if you don’t want your cookies to spread too much (i.e. become too thin on the cookie sheet) do not over beat the butter/sugar mixture. Even when recipes say to “beat til fluffy,” I wouldn’t take that too seriously. The more air you beat into the mix the further they’ll spread. Just something to keep in mind.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and both sugars until the mixture just starts to become fluffy. Do not over beat. Add egg and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat until the flour just starts to become incorporated with the wet ingredients. Add the oats and coconut and stir using a wooden spoon or spatula just until the mixture is evenly incorporated. The batter will be relatively dry. Do not over mix.

Drop cookies by tablespoons onto baking sheets, spacing cookies a few inches apart. Bake in hot oven for 10 – 11 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just golden. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool on sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a baking rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days (or as long as they last).

Yum. Those look delicious and your flavors look perfectly inspired by your new digs. That's sad (but understandable) he doesn't have time to help out anymore but maybe it's an opportunity for you to learn some tricks!

Yum. Those look delicious and your flavors look perfectly inspired by your new digs. That's sad (but understandable) he doesn't have time to help out anymore but maybe it's an opportunity for you to learn some tricks!